Classically Liberal

An independent blog looking at things from a classically liberal perspective. We are independent of any group or organization, and only speak for ourselves, and intend to keep it that way.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fundy pastor wants "registry" to track non-believers.

Fundamentalist "minister" Mike Stahl wants to use the power of the state to force all "atheists" to register on a "national registry" so that Christians can harass them.

Stahl wrote: "There are already National Registrys (sic) for convicted sex offenders, ex-convicts, terrorist cells, hate groups like the KKK, skinheads, radical Islamists, etc." Other than not knowing how to spell registries Stahl is talking out of his proverbial anal orifice. There is NO national registry for sex offenders. There are state registries and they have worked very badly, and been counterproductive.

That said, there are no national registries of any kind similar to what Stahl envisions. Not only that, but other than state run registries for so-called sex offenders (peeing in an alley is now a sex offense, streaking is a sex offense, two teens have consenting sex is a sex offense, etc.) there are NO registries of any kind, at any level of government. More importantly, under Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech there are NO registries based on opinions.

Stahl is simply making things up.

What is the purpose of this registry? Stahl wrote:

Now, many (especially the atheists), may ask "Why do this, what's the purpose?"Duhhh, Mr. Atheist for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net - to INFORM the public! I mean, in the City of Miramar, Florida, where I live, the population is approx. 109,000. My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists! Perhaps we may actually know some. In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism. Or perhaps they are radical atheists, whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh's, in that case, if they are business owners, we would encourage all our Christian friends, as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be "feeding" Satan.

Frankly, I don't see why anyone would oppose this idea - including the atheists themselves (unless of course, they're actually ashamed of their atheist religion, and would prefer to stay in the 'closet.').

Two purposes are given by Stahl to register non-believers. First, he wants to know who these people are so fundamentalists can "witness to them." Anyone who has been "witnessed" to by this annoying morons knows exactly how aggressive and rude they can be. To register people so that fundamentalists can find them for "witnessing" amounts to harassment. People's opinions are not public business. The second reason Stahl wants a registry is so that Christians can boycott, perhaps picket, businesses owned by these people.

Now, let us consider a second factor when it comes to these extremists. They don't believe Catholics are Christians. They believe Jews worship the wrong god, ditto for Mormons, most mainstream Christians and everyone who is not a brain-damaged fundamentalist. None of these people are Christians in the eyes of the fundamentalist. Only fellow fundamentalists are Christians. So, why stop with a registry for atheists who need "witnessing?" Surely the Mormons need witnessing. Ditto for Catholics, Episcopalians, etc.

Also notice that Stahl wants to use boycotts to harm businesses simply because they are owned by non believers.

And that brings us to a religious right loon named Matt Barber. Like many fundamentalists Barber's obsession is hating gay people. Fundamentalists, of course, really "love" gay people. Much like the SS loved Jews and the Klan loves blacks. Actually neither the Nazis nor the Klan liked gay people much either—which just goes to show how "Christian" they really were.

Barber's bitch is that there is a fundraising organization that was called the Christian Values Network. Well, the name was a give away so they changed it to something that gives a different, albeit false, impression. They are now called the Charity Give Back Group. Now "giving to charity" sounds much nice than funding fundamentalist hate groups sounds. Which is why they changed their name to hide that funds they received went to far right groups trying to impose government regulations on people they hate—which is about everyone.

They encourage fundamentalists to use their web site to buy items from major companies and they tell the companies they will channel business to them for a cut of the action—which is then used to finance fundamentalist political groups and churches. What is missing from the list of organizations funded this way are what would count in most people's minds as real charities.

Lots of large corporations signed on. After all they don't have anything against "giving back" to charity. What they didn't realize was that they were funding some very specific political policies. As these corporation discovered they were being duped they started pulling out of the program. That has pissed off fundamentalist hate leaders like Barber who, of course, says "the gays" are to blame. Gays are to fundamentalists what Jews are to Nazis, the all-encompassing scapegoat for every social ill that befalls them.

Barber says that since sponsors of this project are dropping out, when they discover they are financing a political agenda, it means that there is "economic terrorism" going on. Yep, "economic terrorism." Apparently Barber assumes that since people tell businesses they will boycott them if they make political contributions this is "terrorism." Well, actually it is only terrorism when other people do it. Barber himself has demanded boycotts of businesses for not being sufficiently anti-gay to please him. When he does it, it's peachy keen and what Jesus wants. When other people do it, it's "economic terrorism." This is fundy-speak, an Orwellian world where words mean different things for different groups.

Barber goes even further with his latest rant. He now claims that the "sexual anarchist lobby," which includes non-anarchists as well, "want to see those of us who hold traditional values and have a biblical view of sexual behavior and sexual morality; they want to see us behind bars." Hyperbole is the hallmark of the fundamentalist. I know of no such effort to arrest people for being assholes—Barber is safe. He knows he safe but he needs to terrorize the old bigots on his mailing list and this works. He says that the nasty gay anarchists "want to see people like us not able to make a living" and that is why they have this "economic terrorism."

Notice that CGBG is not about "making a living." It is about donations to political groups and religious groups. No one is saying that these people should lose their jobs or that companies should fire them for being annoying asswipes. It is their absolute right to be asswipes and Barber exercises that right on a daily basis. But no one has a right to donation. Donations are freely given gifts and if people decide to not give those donations there is no "terrorism" going on.

But things get more bizarre when you read about how Barber pretends that gays want to put fundamentalists "behind bars." Watch the video below of fundamentalist Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Fischer claims there is "no reason" that homosexual sodomy shouldn't be a criminal offense in this country. Criminal? So who wants to jail whom? See, that's more of the fundy speak. People who don't donate to them want to put them in jail but when they actually want to make being gay a criminal offense, which means jail, they are just being loving.

By the way, for the record, sodomy laws did not make homosexuality per se a sexual offense. The laws were much more complex. Sometimes homosexual acts were covered by such laws and some homosexual sex was NOT covered by such laws. The laws often applied to oral sex between any consenting adults, including husband and wife but not oral sex between two women. And in many cases two men having sex in private couldn't be prosecuted even if they both admitted they had sex, in some states it required a third party witness. Fischer doesn't know the facts about sodomy laws in America, but then knowledge and fundamentalism rarely go together.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

What's Their Excuse Now?

Over the years I've run into libertarians (real ones) who justified their support for a conservative like Ron Paul with the excuse: "He's better than anyone else running."

They admitted that Paul wasn't really all that libertarian but they used the dismal records of the other candidates to justify drinking the Rondroid Kool-Aid.

They weren't thrilled with Ron's rabid immigrant bashing, his voting for the wall along the border, or his denying that he once supported abolishing the immigration department. They weren't happy that Ron simply lied about libertarian positions he once took and now pretends he never did.

They were not happy with Ron's record of voting against measures that reduce trade barriers under the pretense that they didn't totally abolish them. They didn't buy that excuse since it would argue that a tax cut is wrong unless it abolishes all taxes.

They were not happy with Ron's bigotry and appeals to racists and the like in his sleazy newsletters, his business venture with fellow conservative bigot, Lew Rockwell.

But, they argued, he was still better than the other choices.

But Gary Johnson got into the race and did so before the befuddled Texan joined the race. So what did the Rondroids do? Did they recognize that Gary was good where Ron was shitty, good where Ron was good, and had NONE of the insane conspiracy theories that Ron entertains? No!

Now they are attacking Gary for ruining Ron Paul's chances.

What are those chances? Zero. Most voters don't know Ron's record. Imagine the first time Ron and Obama square off.

All Obama has to do is read out the hateful, bigoted comments that appeared in Ron's newsletters, under his editorship and under his byline. It matters little whether his business partner, Lew Rockwell, wrote the racist comments or not. Ron approved them. He KNEW they were appearing no matter how often he now denies it. Ron suffers from political induced Alzheimer's, he conveniently forgets things. He forgot he was editor with Rockwell. He forgot he was business partners with Rockwell. He forgot that he signed on to the newsletters and published them over a period of five years. He forgot his wife and daughter were paid staff members of the newsletters—even if they did no work for their salaries. And he claims he forgot who wrote the vile material that appeared under his byline. How convenient!

The senility of the situation should humiliate any decent libertarian. But there are so few decent libertarians left. Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell introduced a poison to the libertarian movement. They promoted the anti-immigrant, anti-gay views of the conservative Right. They pushed the venom of racism and bigotry in a way that the modern libertarian movement has never before experienced. And they attracted a bunch of intolerant, bigoted morons to the movement in the name of a floating abstraction called anarcho-capitalism. This is rather contradictory given Paul's living off of the taxpayers for most his adult life.

Gary Johnson is what libertarianism used to be about, before the sheet-wearing neo-Confederates infiltrated the movement. And he is the only choice for libertarians who remain true to the original definitions of libertarianism.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Wacky Romp on the Religious Right

You know we're getting into election when the Religious Right goes bonkers, making bizarre statements and hiding their own little scandals. It's been a busy few days.

Of course, we have the scandals of two Republican legislators, both with anti-gay records, getting caught in their own little gay scandals. Indiana Representative Phil Hinkle claimed his brain "snapped" and caused him to try to hire, then sexually assault, an 18-year-old man but rest assured, Hinkle said he's not gay. Puerto Rican Republican senator Robert Arango took rather intimate photos of his anus and posted them to a gay "meet up" site. His justification for the photos was he was documenting his recent "weight loss." Okay!

Then there was Rabbi Yehuda Levin, who speaks at rallies held by the sexual equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan, the National Organization for (sic) Marriage run by that rotund little bigot Maggie Gallagher. Actually Maggie is very pro-marriage. This explains why she had her first child out of wedlock, and why she is now on her second marriage. I believe, if my math is correct, she has had children by three different men to date. Her current hubbie is Raman Srivastav. Maggie not only hides him away but won't use her married name. I guess the kind of pro marriage people she deals with don't take kindly to her current marriage to a man who is not "Caucasian" and who is NOT a Christian. Given how Maggie wears her religion on her sleeve, it is no accident she avoids being seen in public with her husband and refuses to use his name. But, back to Levin, who told the world that earthquake that was centered in Virginia was God's punishment to New York for gay marriage. Yep, he knows what motivates God.

Well, the dike has broken with that sort of nonsense. The senile, rambling Ron Paul of religion, Pat Robertson, said the Virginia earthquake "means that we're closer to the coming of the Lord." I wonder how long these morons can keep that mantra up? Earthquakes have been a common, daily occurrence for as long as the planet has existed. God really is a dork to pick a "sign" that happens daily. It is of no use to indicate his "message" since they happen constantly, no matter what "sins" the people are engaging in. God has to be rather stupid. This is like picking sunlight to predict the end of the world. Every day the sun shines and the world still hasn't ended. All I can conclude is that Jehovah would have to be as dumb as his followers.

Of course, Robertson can't be outdone by a Christ-crucifying rabbi so he upped the ante and claimed that the crack in the Washington Monument is a "sign from the Lord" and is "symbolic." You might remember that senile Pat said the Haiti earthquake was because Haitians had a secret "pact" with the devil.

According to surveys about 38% of Americans believe that natural disasters are messages from God. I note this is almost the same percentage of people who believe support the Republicans as advocates of free markets and limited government. Clearly this proves that once you believe one piece of bullshit, you are prone to believe other pieces. Note, I'm not saying free enterprise and limited government are bullshit, I'm saying that Republican "support" for these things is bullshit. God's Own Party remains a big government organization.

Meanwhile, another crazy woman from the Right, Linda Harvey of "Mission America," has decided that the way to solve the "gay problem" is to announce that gay people simply DO NOT exist. On wacky right radio she said: "There's one big fact that's not backed up." Read that several times and it still won't make sense. It is a contradiction. If it's not backed up, then it is not "one big fact." But what gets more bizarre is that the unsubstantiated fact is "There is no proof that there's ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human." Okay, so her inability to speak English meant she said the opposite of what she was trying say.

She seems to be saying that there is no such thing as gay people, or bisexuals or transgendered people. She was ranting about a program to teach respect of others. She says this really means respect not for people "but for homosexual lifestyle." She says the "The PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans." When I hear sentences such as that, I become sympathetic to the bigots who want to make English the official language.

Harvey simply can't put a complete sentence together. Entire clauses appear to be missing. But, what she is saying is that you can't teach respect for gay people because gay people do not exist. There is only something called a "homosexual lifestyle," which apparently even homosexuals can't agree upon. From the "lifestyle" that I'm seeing being pushed by "activists" and "radicals," in the non-existent gay community, is to get married, settle down, and maybe have children. Wait a second! Isn't that the heterosexual lifestyle? Of course, the way the sentence is worded Harvey may simply be saying she doesn't think gay people are humans. It's hard to tell when you're clearly dealing with someone who doesn't speak English well.

Meanwhile, the Religious Right had to deal with the funeral of one of their own. Rev. Zachery Tims was pastor of the mega-church New Destiny Christian Center. Tims was found dead in a hotel in New York City. He had a "glassine envelope containing white powder" on his person. No doubt it was Sweet 'n Low or something similar. Surely it wasn't an illegal substance in spite of Tims history of drug abuse problems.

According to the church's website Tims was a "troubled" youth who was "miraculously saved, instantly delivered from drug addictions and called into ministry." Hmm, I hope that "miraculously saved" part worked better than the "instantly delivered" part. Having escaped from the world of fundamentalism I can assure you that dishonest claims about being "instantly delivered" are rampant on the religious right. The one thing they can not tolerate is reality.

I remember when a porno theater burned down and a well known fundamentalist minister was among the dead. His followers had an instant explanation for his presence. He went there to "minister to" the men attending the film. Sure, he went to the porno theater to give them a hand or something like that. When Southern Baptist leader Lonnie Latham was caught propositioning a male police office for oral sex he tried the "I was in the area pastoring to police" excuse as well. It didn't work. Giving a cop a blow job is not the same thing as pastoring.

They can't face the truth about evolution. They can't face the facts about gay people. They can't even face the facts about drug addiction. They make up bullshit to try and rescue a theology befitting the Dark Ages. Since they can't accept the reality that their religion is so much BS, they twist reality and lie constantly. So, yes, we get scandals about drug addicted ministers dying in a out-of-state hotel room with a suspicious powder on their person. We get "exgay" leaders caught in bed with same-sex individuals they claim to be counseling. We get anti-gay Republicans claiming they posted their anal opening on a gay site to document weight loss, or who claim they "snapped" and that caused them to hire a male prostitute. Of course, who can forget Rev. George Rekers, an antigay leader of the cure-gays kind, who was caught with a pretty boy prostitute that he took to Europe.

Rekers still has the most articulate excuse. He claims he asked this boy to accompany him and give him nude, genital massages, because he needed someone to "Lift my Luggage."

Sure, we all need someone to life our luggage now and then. But only fundamentalists feel compelled to lie about it.

Republican says nude photos to document weight loss

Part of the American empire is Puerto Rico, which isn't quite a state, but is part of the country, something immigration officials periodically forget due to their lack of education.

Roberto Arango is a senator in the legislature there and a top official in the Republican Party. He was also revealed to have posted naughty pictures of himself to a gay website. His excuse is a gem:

You know I've been losing weight. As I shed that weight, I've been taking pictures. I don't remember taking this particular picture but I'm not gonna say I didn't take it, I'd tell you if I remembered taking the picture but I don't.

The problem with this excuse is that a photo of one rectum doesn't quite document weight loss. I don't have problem with nude photos or even people documenting weight loss with said photos. But really, this is not the pose that one would expect under those circumstances.

Meanwhile, for an update on another Republican hypocrite go below the asshole below:

You will remember that we recently posted about anti-gay Republican Phil Hinkle, a representative in the Indiana state legislature. Hinkle tried to hire a young man for a sexual encounter recently and instead found the young man rather upset by his aggressive gropes and his bragging about his political position. Hinkle didn't want to let the young man leave the hotel room as the nude Republican started fondling the clothed young man. Well, that didn't work out well as the young man fled the scene and the sister of said young man went to the media about it.

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, trying to protect the hypocritical image of moralistic Republican assholes (see above) called on Hinkle to resign his seat, as opposed to fondling the seat of the said young man. Hinkle recently meet with a reporter and rambled on for 90 minutes. He admits he offered to pay the youth for a "really good time," and admits he sent the emails soliciting him, and rented a hotel room for the romp he was expecting. But, he absolutely denies offering anything to the young man to keep the incident secret, which is hard to explain after he gave the young man some valuable items to try to buy his silence.

The reporter asked Hinkle if he has done this before, with young men. Hinkle refused to answer saying, "We're not going there." Hmm, I take that to be a yes.

The reporter says Hinkle fluctuated between quoting the Bible and condemning "judgmental Bible thumpers." I guess the problem Hinkle has is who gets thumped. When he thumps gay people with the Bible that's just peachy. When his feel Bible-thumpers thump him, for precisely the same thing, he gets defensive.

He didn't pretend he was in the room for a weight-loss therapy session. He instead says he is now in therapy because something "upstairs in my brain went off that sent me down a road to self-destruction. Somewhere upstairs a button got pushed and I want to know why. People keep asking: 'What were you thinking?' I honestly don't know. It's as simple as that." Ah, no, it is more simple than that. No button was pushed, Mr Hinkle, you just went out and hired a male for sex and got caught you hypocritical fucktard!

Hinkle insists that he and the young man only talked about baseball. He doesn't explain why he was nude to talk about baseball. He says he went to the bathroom and the young man vanished with the very items the young man says he was given as an attempt to bribe his silence. Of course, Hinkle, being the forgiving conservative that he is, won't file charges against the young man for theft. How convenient. But Hinkle will not resign, though he won't run for office again.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

God hates herring!

Here is the sort of nonsense you get when you replace science with superstition. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, whose faith requires him to look as if an emaciated possum crawled onto his face and died. This hate-filled Rabbi goes into lie after lie to try to prove that his loving God is killing people because God hates gay people as much as the Rabbi does. I find it interesting that when people invent deities they invent ones with all the stupid, petty prejudices that inflict themselves.

I still stand by my observation that when a person invents a god, they invent one that is really a grand version of them self. Bigots like Levin invent gods that are as bigoted as they are. Catholics think God is a big version of the Pope, though I'm not sure he hides the scandals as actively as the Pope does.

Levin says that the earthquake in Haiti was about gays. How? Well, Haiti has a high HIV rate and apparently the silly rabbi doesn't realize it can be spread heterosexually. Actually, contrary to the rants from the Right, HIV is mainly spread heterosexually, not homosexually. Most the HIV victims in the world are heterosexual. Of course, you had that fake libertarian, Ron Paul, telling readers of his hate newsletters that the only way they could not get AIDS unless they "are deliberately infected by a malicious gay." (Gee, what does that House Gay, JR, who licks Ron Paul's boots today, have to say about that? Wasn't he the same person who wrote a book claiming AIDS was a government conspiracy. Today he just engages in cheap anti-Semitism on behalf of Ronnie and Lew.)

Levin now argues that the earthquake on the East Coast was God punishing New York for gay marriage. Apparently God has bad eyesight—which would explain why God doesn't smite Levin for that hideous, scraggly looking beard.

God screwed up. He sent the earthquake to a town called Mineral, Virginia. Now, give or take a few miles, Mineral is 300 miles from New York. So, the malignant being that Levin invents decides to punish New York by sending an earthquake to a small town in Virginia 300 miles. And Virginia is just as anti-gay as the Rabbi. This is divine justice! New York got the residual effects, nothing more. They got shaken up a little bit by an entirely natural process.

Here are the facts, put in terms that even a God-besotted, crazed rabbi can understand. Earthquakes happen every day. They happen all over the world, every day. They happen in places that hate gays, the way the Rabbi demands, and they happen in places where people don't hate gays. Today we had significant earthquakes in Toga, Peru, Turkey, Mexico, and Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not a tolerant place for gay people nor are Peru and Toga known for their "gay scene." There were three large quakes today in the Norwegian Sea, which is hardly a hotbed of gay activity. All that happens there is shipping, fishing and oil rigs. God hates herring!

Yesterday we had significant earthquakes in such "gay friendly" places as Indonesia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia and New Guinea. In the past week Vanuatu has had 19 significant earthquakes. They get over 2,000 "seismic events" per year. I checked with "Gay Vanuatu" to see what could be causing all this shaking. Their site says, "there is no active 'gay scene' in Vanuatu." Gee, with 2,000 seismic events per year, and 19 significant earthquakes in the last week, according to the crazy Rabbi's theory they should be buggering on the beaches as we speak.

The god of Levin is clearly a buffoon. And if he did exist he should sue Levin and those like him for lible. This is laughable, or at least it would be, if it weren't so clearly animated by hatred for gay people. Rabbi Levin is a theological clown, which may explain that beard.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Gay 911 victims treated differently.

Monday, August 22, 2011

A question for Libertarians

There are a lot of libertarians who still buy into the Ron Paul myth, I'm sad to say. Ron is no libertarian. He's a paleoconservative and his voting record backs that up. In addition he has all the crazy shit he gets from the Birch Society and continues to spew out.

But what I find surprising is how gullible some libertarians are regarding Ron's excuses for all this. Take the newsletter that Ron edited and sold, during his stint out of office, between his LP presidential bid and his next Congressional race.

Ron was listed as co-editor of the newsletter. There was a staff of four people, including his wife and daughter. So it was hardly a huge enterprise. It published some pretty bigoted remarks about blacks and gays and had the usual crazy Ron Paul shit about conspiracies.

In his Congressional race the issue of his newsletters came up. Ron took full credit for the material, said he wrote it, and claimed that he was just being quoted out of context. Actually, in context it was damn awful as well. But Ron did not dispute his role in producing this newsletter nor his authorship of the articles. Remember also that these articles had been appearing for a period of five years.

When Ron next decided to build his group's bank account by "running" for president the issue of the newsletters came up again. This time he said the opposite of what he said before. He no longer stood by what he wrote. In fact, he claimed he didn't write it. And he claimed he didn't know it was going on.

Odd that he didn't know what was going out under his by line for a period of five years. Odder still that neither his wife nor daughter decided to let him in on the secret that the publication paying them a salary, was spewing bigotry. Odd that Ron's co-editor and good buddy, Lew Rockwell, also never told Ron what was being published. Odder still is that over the five years Ron never heard about this from a single reader, campaign supporter, friend, or fan anywhere, at anytime, during the entire period it was going on.

But there are libertarians who buy every word of this. Why? I suggest for one reason only, because they like Ron and don't want to give up their illusions.

So here is a mental exercise. Pretend there was the Sarah Pallin Newsletter. Pretend it said the same bigoted things that Ron said. Pretend that Sarah's husband and daughter were both employed by it. Pretend the she was co-editor and that the other co-editor was her business partner and good friend. And pretend the only other staff member was Sarah's campaign manager.

Now pretend the newsletters are exposed and Sarah admitted she wrote them, took credit for it but claimed she was being taken out of context. But later Sarah claims she didn't write them. She even claims she didn't know it was being done in her name. In addition she wants you to believe that she found out about any of this during the entire five years it was happening, over and over again.

Would you believe her? Somehow I doubt it. I am sure the Palin fans out there would accept this on face value just because their guru said it. That is, after all, how personality cults operate. People don't like to acknowledge their idols have clay feet. And sometimes they just go through some bizarre mental gymnastics to avoid having to acknowledge the obvious because they don't want to lose another icon they worship. I suggest that this is precisely how Ron Paul is treated by some "libertarians."

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Another Republican in a "morals" scandal.

The French comedy film, Le Cage aux Folles, has the son of two gay men engaged to the daughter of the deputy leader of a French version of the Moral Majority. The deputy leader just learns that the leader of the moral order has died of a heart attack while in bed with a prostitute, who was both underaged and black. Not knowing the truth about his daughter's fiance's family he concocts the idea that a nice, wholesome wedding would save their image. From this premise all humor flows.

Republicans are the organized political party of the moralistic crowd in America. They promote "family values," which is code for "we hate gays." Taking their clues from insane American fundamentalists the GOP assumes that hating gays is the height of morality. Doing unto others, in their mind, requires punishing people for their perceived moral shortcomings.

I have long contended that the conservative obsession with morality is the direct result of these individuals knowing their own heart all too well. They fear "sin" in others because they know exactly how corrupt they themselves happen to be. Conversely, the desire of those on the Left to impose charity, via the state, on others, is the result of their knowledge that they are not charitable when given the opportunity. Political groups tend to want the state to compensate for the moral shortcomings that they themselves possess.

And once again a Right-wing, moralistic Republican politician has stepped forward to prove my thesis. The Republican in question is Indiana state representative, Phillip Hinkle. An 18-year-old male had placed an online ad looking for a "sugga daddy." The implication was clearly an exchange of sex for cash, which certainly is a far more honorable profession than, say, being a state representative.

Hinkle emailed the man saying, "Cannot be a long time sugar daddy, but can for tonight. Would you be interested in keeping company for a while tonight?" In keeping with his "fiscal conservative" nature Hinkle actually went on the cheap. He offered the young man $80 to spend time with him at a local Indianapolis hotel. He told the young man that he would give him an additional tip of $50 or $60 "for a really good time." Hinkle told the young man, "I am an in shape married professional, 5'8", fit 170 lbs, and love getting and staying naked."

The young man, Kameryn Gibson replied, "Yes, I can!" Hinkle offered to pick up the young man at his home and drive him to the hotel. He also suggested, "If u want to consider spending night u might tell ur sis so she won't worry. Would have u back before 11 tomorrow. No extra cash just free breakfast and maybe late night snack." No extra cash! For a full night! He's not only a hypocrite but a cheap hypocrite to boot! Gibson gave his address and Hinkle picked him up.

At the hotel Gibson was told to go to the room by himself first, so that that the two would not be seen together. Hinkle waited about 15 minutes and entered the room and stripped and then wrapped a towel around his waist. At this point he mentioned to Gibson that he was a legislator and showed an ID card. Gibson, perhaps realizing he was dealing with a particularly loathsome and low class of human being—a politician—did what any self-respecting prostitute would do; he told Hinkle, "I don't want to do this."

Hinkle got upset that Gibson wanted out and supposedly him "You need to do this, because I came and got you, and I'm not taking you back until we do what we need to do."

Gibson made a beeline for the bathroom and called his sister who said she would be there momentarily to pick him up. Upon leaving the bathroom Gibson was told by Hinkle that he couldn't leave. Gibson called his sister again who read the riot act to Hinkle and told him that he didn't let her brother leave she would call the police and the media.

According to Gibson, when the pair hung up, Hinkle grabbed Gibson's upper arm to stop him, reached around to grab the young man's ass and then dropped his towel to put his Republican jewels on display. When Megan Gibson arrived to pick up her brother she again cussed out Hinkle telling him she was calling the police and the media. Hinkle panicked and offered her his iPad, BlackBerry and $100 in cash. Stupidly, in my opinion, she took what Hinkle offered and left with her brother.

She says she started getting calls on the BlackBerry from a woman who said she was Hinkle's equally Republican wife. Megan responded, "Your husband is gay." Mrs. GOP said, "You have the wrong person." Megan recounted the email address used to solicit her brother and the wife went silent and then said, "Please don't call the police."

Megan says that various family members of Hinkle started calling demanding to see proof of the email exchange between the politician and her brother. Megan dropped Kameryn off at home and was asked to come back to the hotel to meet Hinkle's daughter who wanted to see the emails. They were shown to her. Shortly Hinkle's wife called Megan and offered her $10,000 to remain quiet. Then Hinkle himself called Megan. Megan told him that she had told his wife and family that he was gay. She said Hinkle said, "You just ruined me." No, she didn't! The ruin of Hinkle was entirely self-induced.

When the media questioned Hinkle about the incident he did not deny the email exchange but described the encounter as a "shakedown." Shakedown? Isn't that what Republicans and Democrats do to taxpayers on a regular basis? His attorney wouldn't clarify what "shakedown" meant, would only say they were "investigating" the matter and then appealed to everyone to "respect" his client's privacy. Privacy? Really! Think about it for a second. Hinkle is a moralistic Republican who supports the laws that criminalized his own proclivities. Sure, if the law only applied to moralistic assholes in office that would be one thing, but these laws apply to everyone in the whole state. When you criminalize the sexual activities of consenting adults you are invading the privacy of every adult in the state.

Hinkle had no respect for the private lives of others. He was hoisted on his own petard.

Now, let us look at what was going on here, and not at the spin that Hinkle is trying to use. Gibson placed an ad on Craigslist making it clear that he would like to meet other men for sexual encounters. He had no knowledge that Hinkle would respond. Hinkle contacted him and expressed a desire to meet. Gibson asked why they should meet and Hinkle offered him money and said he would pick him up. If this were just an innocent friendship there would be no offer of cash by Hinkle and no promise of a tip for a really "good time."

Hinkle, knowing he was soliciting a teen-aged male for sex sent Gibson to the room by himself to avoid being seen entering the hotel together. Upon getting to his room Hinkle strips naked and wraps a towel around his waist. He was ready to go and making it clear. Hinkle stupidly says who he is sending Gibson into a panic who says he wants to leave. Hinkle won't allow it, he did, after all, drive to pick Gibson up and wanted what he contracted for before he would let the young man leave.

Once Hinkle, and then his family, realized that they had a potential scandal on their hands, he and they started offering things to Gibson, and his sister, to try and buy their silence. Let us be clear, it is obvious that Hinkle knew he soliciting a young man for sexual purposes. Everything he did implied he was fully aware of what he was doing. This was no miscommunication. And, it was no shakedown, since Gibson had no way of making Hinkle respond, did not know Hinkle was a politician until Hinkle stupidly revealed that fact—perhaps in the hope of thinking it would impress the young man he was trying to get into his bed.

The offer of $10,000 cash was not accepted and it was Megan Gibson who went to press, saying she thought Hinkle was "creepy" and that since he was a politician the public should know what he was up to. Gibson provided the emails to the press and allowed them to inspect them, as well as showing them the phone log to verify calls from Hinkle. Hinkle, in his "illustrious" career as a political bottom-feeder, has pushed for prayer in state schools, supports "abstinence-only" sex education, was a co-sponsor of legislation to deny marriage rights for gay couples, and pushed through legislation to put "In God We Trust" on car license plates. He is anti-abortion rights, supported a state-wide ban in public places, wants to punish private businesses for hiring "illegal" immigrants, and supported mandating seat belts. He is also anti-gambling. I can see why. He took a bit risk calling a teenaged male for sex, and he lost big time.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Come On, Live Free

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

A charming reminder of the ugly side of Dr. No.

People might have forgotten the sort of things that Ron Paul's newsletter said. You will remember that he retired from Congress before. And then used his mailing list to solicit subscriptions to his new political report, which was written by Paul, Lew Rockwell and a few others. Rockwell and Paul were business partners in it with Rockwell as editor and a major ghostwriter for Paul. The same mailing list when, as I understand it, later used by Rockwell to solicit donations to start the paleoconservative Mises Institute.

Here are a few charmers from the newsletter.

When Al Sharpton and others were pushing to rename New York City after King, the newsletter suggested other names, all charming.

Welfaria

Zooville

Rapetown

Dirtburg

Lazyopolis

The newsletter said demonstrations in favor of honoring King in this way were better held "at a food stamp bureau or a crack house."

When a gay reporter criticized the commentator Andy Rooney for anti-gay remarks, the newsletter said he "certainly had an axe to grind, and that's not easy with a limp wrist."

In the June 1990 issue Ron was attributed with saying: "I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities."

The January, 1994 issue said that gay men in San Francisco "don't really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners." As for the issue of AIDS, it said that gay men "enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick." In the Dec. 1989 issue he quoted Right-wing Bill Dannemeyer claiming that "the average homosexual has 1,000 or more partners in a lifetime." In January, 1990 they ridiculed the "Silence=Death" campaign, on AIDS awareness, by suggesting it should be changed to "Sodomy=Death." In September, 1994 he assured his white, heterosexual readers that unless they have sodomy, or a blood transfusion, or swap needles that they are "virtually assured of not getting AIDS unless they are deliberately infected by a malicious gay."

In a letter urging various Right-wing loons, anti-Semites and bigots to subscribe to his newsletter Paul wrote: "I''ve been told not to talk, but these stooges don't scare me. Threats or no threats, I've laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS (my training as a physician helps me see through this one.) The Bohemian Grover-perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress's Mr. New Money. The Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica."

So, Ronnie laid bare "the coming race war" in America's cities. That was over two decades ago; did we have a race war when I wasn't looking? Nope. In Dec. 1989 Paul ran an article "The Coming Race War," that said: "If you live in a major city, and can leave, do so. If not, but you can have a rural retreat, for investment and refuge, buy it." Paul said "Racial Violence Will Fill Our Cities" because "mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white 'haves.'" In 1992 he said: "I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self-defense. For the animals are coming." Hmm, were those "animals" the black race rioters he was paranoid about? He blamed liberals for preventing "white America from taking action against black crime and welfare."

But back then Paul was pandering to what they called "Outreach to the Rednecks" where they would forge a paleoconservative/paleolibertarian alliance. So you will find various issues favorable citing the white supremacist Jared Taylor. Taylor is a long time racist, and has just released his newest screed "White Identity." But he's been in the race baiting business for decades and was so when cited by the Paul newsletter as an authority.

I got Paul's newsletters at the time and these were the final straw for me. I stopped supporting him entirely after reading year after year of these hateful letters.

Yes, I know Ron, claims he doesn't know who wrote the material. Odd that the paid staff of the newsletter was Paul's wife, his daughter, Lew Rockwell and one other person, who ran his campaigns. There aren't many to pick from. Apparently we have to believe that Paul's wife, daughter, campaign manager, and business partner/friend Lew Rockwell, all kept Paul in the dark about the hateful material that was being distributed in Ron's name, sometimes under his byline. We also have to believe that Ron never got curious enough to read one of his own newsletters, and that in the period of years that this was going on, not one single reader brought the bigotry to his attention. I don't find that plausible. Add in that Ron claims he can't remember the mystery employees name, that no other employees showed up on the tax records, and that Ron refused to investigate who it might have been. It is obviously his attempt to lie his way out of the mess he got into.

I just wanted to remind people as to what sort of venom Ron Paul was peddling to his readers over a period of several years. I know his cult following will simply ignore it. But there are a lot of decent libertarians who do not take kindly to bigotry, at least I hope there are.